NY AG: “Assault weapons have been banned in New York, and no one needs to sell or have them.”

A.G. Schneiderman Announces Arrest of Federally Licensed Arms Dealer for Violating State and Local Gun Laws in Brooklyn

(New York, NY) Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced the arrest of Hannibal Smith [not shown] for possessing assault weapons and other guns in violation of state and federal law in Brooklyn. Smith was charged and arraigned, in Brooklyn Criminal Court today, on three counts of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Third Degree, a Class D Felony. He faces up to 7 years in prison on each count under New York State’s SAFE Act . . .

Smith, 29, had previously obtained a limited Federal Firearms License, “FFL,” to sell receivers (parts that make a gun operable, such as the trigger and magazine attachment), of firearms outside of New York City. In violation of that license, Smith purchased fully assembled and operable firearms for his gun selling operation, Brooklyn Firearms, which he ran out of a Warren Street storefront in Park Slope. Smith then sold these firearms to purchasers. Today’s charges arise from three weapons recovered by agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) from his residence and two other guns that Smith had illegally shipped to a purchaser in Florida.

“Gun dealers in New York must be permitted must have permits and they must abide by our local and state law – laws that are tough but fair and that were enacted to ensure that those who live in our communities are safe,” Attorney General Schneiderman said. “Selling unregistered guns illegally, particularly assault weapons, in Brooklyn is illegal and dangerous. Assault weapons have been banned in New York, and no one needs to sell or have them.”

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Special Agent in Charge Joseph Anarumo said, “Having a Federal Firearms License (FFL) is not a license to break state and local law. FFLs are required to comply with the laws of their local jurisdictions in addition to federal law, and this arrest should serve as a reminder of the potential consequences to those who fail to do so.”

The three weapons recovered from Smith’s residence are two Mossberg 12-gauge shotguns and a .22-caliber Ruger rifle. In New York City, a person must possess a permit for each of these weapons. Smith did not have a permit for these guns.

The weapons sent to Florida are classified as assault weapons. They were Waffen Werks AK-74s, both of which are semi-automatic rifles with the ability to accept detachable magazines. Both guns had a conspicuous pistol grip and a threaded barrel, designed to accept a flash suppressor. These are all characteristics of assault weapons as defined by Section 265.00 of the Penal Law, under New York’s SAFE Act and are not permitted to be possessed or sold in the State of New York, except by military and law enforcement personnel.

The Attorney General offers his thanks to the ATF’s Special Agent Howard Stern, Investigator John Curtis and Counsel Matthew Myerson for their work on this matter.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant Attorney General Thomas Schellhammer, under the supervision of Executive Deputy Attorney General for Criminal Justice Kelly Donovan.

94 Responses to NY AG: “Assault weapons have been banned in New York, and no one needs to sell or have them.”

His only mistake is pursuing an honest living selling guns in the anti capitalist,anti gun, anti logic zone that is New York City. He shoulda sold them from the trunk of a Buick like all the other New York City dealers.

True. But the government holds all the power and they say the laws are not illegal. Plus this wasn’t some act of civil disobedience.

I was born and raised in California and I could have stayed there and just ignored the gun laws, but i had neither the time nor the money to put up with that hassle. So I left for a state that loves guns and hunting. That would have been this guys best move if he wanted to sell the things.

It would be like him opening a Cannabis store in NY. We’ll the reality is its illegal in NY and if he wanted to sell that he shoulda moved to CA, WA, or NM. Neither of the two (Cannabis or Guns) should be illegal but they are. Oh well, obey the laws, or take your chances. I’m not gonna feel bad for you, unless you were committing a act of civil disobedience with the intent to show the law is stupid and/or fight it in the courts.

Getting arrested because you are dumb/ignorant is not noble, regardless of whether we disagree with the law.

Run, don’t walk to the nearest exit.
As The Ballad of Jed Clampett plays in the background, the words “Jed move away from there” ring ever true.
Just don’t make the mistake of moving to California, or Colorado for that matter.

A shitty, unconstitutional law which carries a prison sentence that was passed in a dubious manner sent this man to prison. Granted, most states have better gun laws. May the chains of those who live in NY rest lightly upon them, but this guy is screwed.

“I mean he is kinda getting what he deserves. Like it or not its the law where he lives and knowingly (or stupidly unknowingly) breaking the law is never a good idea.”

He is getting what he deserves? Really? Rights are an idea fathomed and inscribed by the nations founding fathers on documents that this country was founded upon. They are intangible, concepts that live within us (some of us). Enforced by us. If we do not enforce our rights, then those in power will delightfully claim we have none. Does Hannibal Smith have the right to keep and bear arms or doesn’t he? They arrested him and confiscated his firearms for him breaking a law that directly contradicts the 2nd amendment. How exactly is he “getting what he deserves?”

The bottom line is… if the law infringes upon our rights, we should all break the law. Our rights (not just the second amendment) are and always will be more important than any law.

Appeal all the way to the Supreme Court. NRA should back these cases. The right of the people to keep and bear arms SHALL NOT be infringed. We can’t form well regulated militias with break-barrel shotguns, should the need to form militias arise. The National Guard is funded and controlled by federal government, and as such IS NOT a militia, but merely an extension of U.S. military.

National Guard is controlled and funded by the individual state. The only reason the feds get to call on them is as part of a contractual agreement with every state as reciprocation for allowing them to use active duty training bases and instructors, or because they provide monetary compensation. In addition, and you’ll never really hear about it, but it’s not unheard of for a governor to tell they feds they aren’t allowed to take their Guard units in specific situations.

This is false. Ever since the National Defense Act of 1933, the feds are the ones who ultimately control National Guard, and they can order the units around and deploy them overseas even over the objection of the state government.

State Defense Forces are the ones that are fully under control of the states (though the feds could still, hypothetically, largely override that by drafting all the people in them into the federal military branches).

Well, I can only speak personally as recently as early 2002, but a basic training instructor couldn’t even make a NG trainee do additional pushups without permission from his state of residence. Then there was the roommate I had in tech school, who went AWOL, who didn’t even get an Article 15 because the Pennsylvania governor’s office said they didn’t feel he deserved punishment.

And then there were all the active duty guys I was stationed with who wound up going to Iraq because the Guard units scheduled for that deployment were held back by governors basing their re-election campaigns on anti-war platforms. And that was under Bush, by the way.

From what I can tell, the 1933 NDA basically makes it so activated Guard units don’t have to be re-enlisted as active duty. It appears to take an act of Congress to override state control. And, since the only thing Congress can agree on is a pay raise for themselves…

Wrong. It is not cut and dried. The governor of each state is the commander-and- chief of the state forces. The state forces (Army and Air National Guard) are called up for active service at the approval of the governor.

Hence, the state forces can be used for emergencies but federal cannot (without significant legal work). The state forces work for the governor. Federal troops cannot fight forest fires or clear storm debirs without significant coordination.

Sure, when lives are not at stake, the Fed, States and Locals have no trouble working together. But you start shooting up a Naval Yard and well, then ya gotta pause to work out who job it is to stop the shooter!

Ya ,what federal law did he break,theRight to keep and Bear? And since the state has ILLEGALY passed laws against the Constitution ,THEY not HE are BREAKING FEDERAL LAW.His Constitutional Rights have been violated and he should be SUEING them.This is where the NRA and the GOA and all other gun rights organizations should pull together and protect these guys.Zimmerman should have been protected against the bias that protected the drug dealer,criminal thief ,bully hoodlum he protected himself against.Let’s through it out there,MAIG,MOM’S FOR STUPIDITY and all the rest of these lying ,make up facts left bozo’s,need to get a dose of reality SHOW THEM THE TV SHOW ‘GANGLAND’ AND LET THEM GET A F…ING CLUE! Murder Central New York,are you kidding me.These assholes go after law abiding citizens cause the are afraid of the gangs.They negotiate with them.Stupid Asses.And they WONDER WHY,gun owners don’t understand their ,ILLEGAL,STUPID”COMMON SENSE’ NON SENSE!

OK. The weapons were trivial and unimportant. The fact is that he lied and can’t be trusted. He said he was doing one thing and actually was doing something illegal. He got caught. He is a criminal and needs to pay a penalty. I don’t believe in the NY laws and I think they are unconstitutional but possessing weapons was not the charge. Lying is why he is in trouble.

Robin, you poor poor dear. Do you have an ouchie? Maybe a Hello Kitty band aid will make it all better? If lying is a crime, we have all we need to get rid of Obama, Pelosi, Dingbat Feinstein, Bloomie, Harry “The Reed” Oh, and that ugly lying d-bag in Florida, Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Lets get rid of her too.

So when the SCOTUS strikes down these laws how much money should we sue all the slave states for for illegally imprisoning people? I’m saying a 1 million per person, per year in jail. Class action baby. Lets literally make em pay.

In 2013 a crack gun dealer was sent to prison by a military court for a crime he maybe commited. This man promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the New York underground. Today, still wanted by the government, he survives selling guns to soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find him, and he has it in stock, maybe you can hire the A-Team.

+1 Loved the show too as a kid… maybe even more for the crazy schemes / home-made tanks / explosions than the gun play. Still, A-team is the reason why a Ruger Mini-14 is still on my gun “wish list” for the future…

So when 100 guys on motorcycles are chasing you through red lights with intent to drag you out of your car and beat you to death, there is no law enforcement anywhere to be found.

But when a citizen with no criminal record has a shotgun and .22 caliber rifle in their home, or sells a semi-automatic rifle to someone in Florida, law enforcement is all over that — complete with multiple agency coordination.

This stinks to high heaven. I hope the man they arrested goes all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and prevails — and manages to pocket a few hundred thousand dollars in punitive damages against the government agents who denied the man his civil rights under color of law.

Another very sound expenditure of taxpayer funds. Sending this guy to prison accomplishes what? Meanwhile, violent felony offenders walk in half the time or are out on parole in a quarter of the time. They have to make room for all those big bad 10/22 owners out there.

It’s obvious that their only purpose here is a show trial. They hope that by aggressively prosecuting one or two cases right out of the gate they will terrorize the rest of the sheeple so that they will not even consider questioning the (unconstitutional) SAFE Act. How many people in New York are willing to have their entire existence turned up side down and their savings drained in legal fees in order to challenge this law?

If this guy did not do this on purpose in order to gain standing in a constitutional challenge in federal court, then he is just a sap. If it is an intentional test case, go, baby, go! And good luck to you.

Yeah.. I should have put a ‘sarc’ tag after that question. Unfortunately I am all too aware of the way “law and order” works is carried out in NYC. I have several relatives that work for the NYPD and most are willing little soldiers in this war on our rights.

wait, he shipped the firearms to Florida. but but I thought all guns went north to NYC.

So, it’s not just against the law to sell a gun to a NY resident, but to an out of state resident too under NY SAFE? Hmmm.

On the other hand, if you live in NY, MD, CA, or NJ, move. now. otherwise this will be you. During you lengthy appeal, you can sing unconstitutional laws should not be followed while in prison, if that comforts you.

Tell that to the man who’s SUV was chased around Manhattan with his wife and 2 year old kid in the car while the biker’s attacked his vehicle and, once they stopped him, they attacked him. I saw he got off lucky…but one of those “assault” rifles sure could have allowed him to protect his family without putting himself in the hospital.

Or, maybe the riders could have used them after the driver committed the first hit-and-run in which they attempted to stop him from running from. You know, before he decided to run over more of them, putting one in a coma, and then running again. You know, before they attacked him for committing the second hit-and-run. If only they would have had them to defend themselves from a chaotic driver that had just committed a crime….

It isn’t a hit-and-run when a motorcycle mob surrounds you and then one rider, looking back at you as he does so, tries to force you to a standstill, like a 1950’s FL State Trooper stopping an out-of-state black man for sport. Breaking free of an obvious false imprisonment by driving through the perp is defense, not offense. From then on an assault (in the tort meaning) by the biker mob was underway non-stop.

I’m stunned that anyone can watch that video, taken for later playback to show the mob’s mighty prowess, and still take the bikers’ side. Did you actually watch the beginning of the tape?

In case I should seem needlessly sympathetic to the Mr. Lien, the SUV driver, and his terror when the biker obviously corralled him to a stop, better details are here: “Cyclist Arrested in SUV Chase Case” WSJ, Oct. 1.

I agree with Ropingdown – the MC gang was committing multiple offenses – reckless driving, conspiracy, and false imprsonment to name a few. None of those a$$holes were victims. They were intentionally shutting down the freeway and harassing motorists.

Accoridng to the article I read, and the video I saw, the bikers were screwing around and clipped him. They got mad, stopped him, and started hitting his vehicle. It wasn’t an “oops there was an accident let’s trade insurance info”…this guy feared for his life. Or so the article I read led me to believe…

You may want to watch the video which clearly shows the motorcyclists starting the confrontation. He did stop after the first incident when the motorcylcle intentional got in front of him and stopped short. But he fled the scene with the jerks (and hopefully soon defendants) starting verbally and physically threatening his family. He fled. They did not detain him for the police. They beat him and left him for dead.

Switch to decaf. Had they behaved in a responsible manner after the first incident, there would be no need for the issue. The police would have taken statements and the insurance companies would have handled the paperwork. Instead, they had to prove to themselves that they are big men (that is irony if you don’t catch it) by ganging up on a man and his young family, pulling him from his vehicle, beating him, and then leaving him to die in the street.

This is what happens when the blue power centers of any state tip the scales in the ballot box. As I’ve continued to warn. NY is a tail (NYC) wags the dog (NY) state. And it should serve as a warning as even most of Texas’s big cities were blue in the 2008 and ’12 elections. With rural populations dwindling and metros shifting blue, even Texas has no room to coast on its current status. Remember, NY had a Rep. governor, a Rep. senate, and Rudy was NYC mayor just a decade ago.

Remember this too: Most, if not all, Republicans in the New England States (The North East) are RINOs. They accept the republican badge, but play the game as if they were, and by the rules of, Democrats.

Yep, Keith. Texas politicians pander to the crowd and its shifting politics just as much as any other state.

As an illustration, Texas is as “keep your hands off!” toward govt concerning business as they are the 2A. Yet…the State of Texas recently tried to block the AA/US Air merger, and *only* dropped their case this week when AA/US agreed not to move their headquarters or stop flying to 22 cities for three years. In other words, when push came to shove, those politicians were not free market as they claim to be, they were good ol’ govt interventionists.

Politicians are politicians. It’s about themselves, and red or blue flies out the window when self-interest walks in the room.

If New York’s crime rates and the rates at which New York’s finest apprehend criminals are running true to form, they’ve managed to collar a few rapists and child molesters in the last couple of days. They will have brought in some gangbangers responsible for armed robberies. They may even have busted a murderer or two.

Strangely, none of these dangerous felons rated a press release to all and sundry. None of these criminals became the focus of an investigation by multiple agencies and jurisdictions. Each of these lawbreakers was brought to justice without the State of New York devoting thousands of dollars worth of police time and effort to make the collar.

Instead, they crow about the apprehension of a man who had no prior criminal record, who possessed three weapons in his residence which would have been perfectly legal in 46 other states, who has not actually injured anyone, and who sold two weapons to an individual in another state (where thouands of other people own similar weapons). This dangerous “gun runner” had a permit that would have allowed him to buy, possess, and sell such weapons, but at the time that he requested the permit, he had expressed only a desire to sell weapon parts, not whole weapons.

Well done, New York! Perhaps you’ll have time to expand your efforts to include some REAL criminals sometime in the future, instead of making gun owners into criminals.

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